LiveGreenNOW

Eco-travel doesn’t always have to mean staying in a hut without electricity and showering with solar-heated water. It is possible to make ecologically sound choices during “traditional” vacations, by giving care to things like lodging and activities.

Need another excuse to hit the beach? The Gulf of Mexico’s natural wonders no doubt attracted prehistoric man and their Native American descendants. With everything man needs for a good life-nearby drinking water, a fertile lake and sea with fish and shellfish, turtles and birds nesting along the shore, shelter from the sun and storms beneath tree-covered earthen depressions, and high ground offering a steady sea breeze to cool and deter insects.

For every New Orleanean heading to the Florida Coast this final long weekend of summer, let me suggest an eco-alternative to a long day at the beach: Eden Gardens State Park with its seven distinct natural communities and the Wesley homestead, nestled in moss-draped live oaks between Destin and Panama City Beach, at Santa Rosa Beach in Point Washington off U.S. Highway 98.

Adriana Schmidt Raub is the founder and operator of Your Way, an eco-travel agency on the island of Fernando de Noronha, Brazil. Born and raised in the city of São Paulo, Adriana fell in love with Noronha during a scuba diving trip in 2000 and moved there three months later. Our travel blogger Ann Woodward recently spoke to Adriana about ecotourism and living green in Brazil.

August brings dreams of island getaways listening to steel drum reggae bands. Sunday afternoons in Los Angeles were spent hanging with my favorite Jamaican, Native Wayne Jobson, while he broadcast his Reggae Smoke-In LIVE from the Malibu Inn along the Pacific Coast Highway with the waves crashing before the sunset. A good eco-traveler gets the goods from the local native, and where Jamaica is concerned, mine is Native Wayne.